New York Voices; 404; A Year of Change, Part 2

Oh you have to take a stand for something even if you have to stand by yourself. That goal from the president down to the principal down to the teacher principal is the make or break moment right. You have a weak principal you have them weeks ago but we need you to really address the situation of consequences and how many new principals we can have suspension like without you. Pressure can be brought from the parents but we are not the boss in the school the principal is the problem with the violences there are no consequences. A principal has to be a manager like running a business. For decades New Yorkers voices have been raised calling for better leadership in the New York public schools. In 2002 Mayor Bloomberg Schools Chancellor Joe Klein began a comprehensive overhaul of the entire education system. It's expected that over the next three

years 600 principal positions will open up one of the cornerstones of his reforms. It's fostering leadership by developing a new generation of school principals in the summer of 2003. Chancellor Klein introduced New Yorkers to 90 new faces the first class of the Leadership Academy the school's first buying frenzy like everybody when you see your dreams become reality. It's an exciting moment when everyone knows before heading off to city schools the aspiring principals went straight to classes of their own. They spent the next eight weeks in an education boot camp and we followed them throughout their training with some extremely rigorous. It's like the Navy SEAL you know the first week and then it's either going to make the list and it was a part of the challenge is how do I negotiate the pressures of the management aspect of the job with the creative instructional

educational aspects of the job. Now halfway through their training they've completed the summer intensive. They have been assigned to schools under the guidance of a mentor another step towards the goal of taking over their own school in September. The clock is ticking. It used to be a system where most of the learning happened on the job and that seemed to be the theory of how the learning should happen we don't have the time right now to wait for people to get their sea legs on the job. We want them to be as prepared. It is possible we'll follow three aspiring principals as they learn to leave funding for a year of change leadership in the principal's office provided by the Wallace Foundation supporting idea showing solutions expanding opportunities additional funding for New York Voices provided by Michael G Martin. The members of 13 and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund we

have a really interesting next candidates and the aspiring principals program we have people who are in their mid to late 20s to people in their mid 60s. We have people who have many many years of teaching we have people who have had fewer years of teaching with people who have been assistant principals who already have their certification but wanted more preparation. The aspiring principal work in New York City schools but they still meet with their original group. Back at the Academy today they were asked to write up an imaginary conflicts in the area they might have used as a new principal at school even and I can't complain I don't speak the same way. I don't think the professionals and colleagues question my little trouble with our soldiers. When you're doing a simulation what the possibilities are endless because you don't necessarily get the push back and we actually want to model more of the pushback here and that's part of the activities where we do the role play where you put something out and you get the

response you get the resistance from one part of what I back the principle. Can I help you. Yes I have that to my child I want to pick you up yesterday were actually today from her dismissal and she was back in a location where she was supposed to be. No I was never notified I was one wall around the building planted by my car. You mean the change in the dismissal that was you know central made us make this change and I mean we tried to notify everybody but there wasn't even time in our hands were full and we had to do this I I thought actually and now I see the consequences of his decision. Girls Making All right let's do brief that for a second you can go back to our blog that is a weak leadership model even if it's like eggs. Even if it's true that it was something that you didn't want to hear that came from somewhere else. You are the leader of the building and appealing to the authority is actually a sign of weakness not a strength. We've had to deal with an irate parent. You've had to deal with a nightly teacher and that was in the

summer and this part of the year really are role playing with each other and playing real situations that people have encountered in their residences right now. What a pile of drilling water and what classes she was going to class and I wanted her to be in that class why would you even understand what's the problem. All of her awful things about that of the teacher. Well I didn't make that law. So let me go get me did make them up onto the principal. Yes I am the president by making movies you know who made the move that's ridiculous I know exactly what made them over and I'm just trying to find out who that is like I was like what happened was I don't like Melo. Our rights are not the situation in the first part of the training as firing principals were given a fictitious school to leave. They debated

their own leadership style and focused on the theory. Then in September handouts and books gave way to car Creek in cinder block real buildings real children and a real staff to begin the next phase of their apprenticeship. It affords us an opportunity to be actively involved in the school but yet we have this sort of inside outside relationship. We are actively there but there is a part of us that is not there. So we're able to sort of get up on the balcony and look at the dance floor from above. I'm very passionately believe that education is definitely one of the keys to success particularly for children of color particularly for poor people. Horace Mann has a great saying. You said over a hundred years ago that education beyond all other devices of human origin is the great equalizer of additions of men. It is the balance wheel of social machinery. And I truly believe that

so that anything that I see myself doing it is part of that grand mission of being part of that balance. So I see this as sort of a mission and appalling to be able to help children without insulting the people that I worked for in the past. Good morning. As leaders and as principals I just began to believe that from their example this is something I can do. I can make a difference. There is a child out here somewhere who needs an opportunity to get through. And my school may be the school that's going to deliver him up. Each aspiring principal was given a partner and sent to work under the guidance of a mentor principal Sandy Ferguson is Larry's mentor principal. He has firsthand experience at turning the school around this building at a failing middle school in a way that was here for years. At that point the hallways were filled with kids

got things that you didn't say on walls and International Studies as a redesign project coming out of that. We didn't change stuff we didn't change students to building wasn't close to reopen. So this is very much a turnaround project where the point where we're incredibly proud of the change that we've made and how far we've come. We're also at a point that is very much a means to him Larry and his partner Nancy Gannon shadowed some of the assistant principals in the schools. They were also given a new initiative called the family group. And people started to right away feel the impact and they were making in sort of feel like hey there's somebody here who's really supporting and providing and doing in our school leadership has its sleeves rolled up. So we're going to start with an activity. I'm going to give each of you something to do. And when I tell you to go I want you to just do it all right. You're going to do this. And I tell you you're going to just snap your fingers. You're going to pitch us. Ready to go.

Louder louder guy. Do you have any idea what the purpose of that was. Let me ask you another question. Did we set a goal. Not really we were just kind of making noise right. How would you define a goal if you had come up with a definition for a goal. What would your definition. OK that's a good start. Family Group is a social developmental time. Twenty five minutes at the beginning of our day the ideas of it really sort of brings kids together addresses issues or community issues and builds community. So we're going to do that same activity. But now this is what I want you to do I'm giving you a goal. Our goal with this activity is to sound like rain ready to go. And really listen you sound like a brainiac.

So what's wrong with the sound we have a bowl of pop. OK you can stop now. Notice we did the same thing at first and it just sounded like noise. Because we did not set a goal and I think a lot of times when you think about like class and or academic work that's the thing that the teachers are always trying to get you to do is to set a goal. But today in the family group we're actually beginning a conversation with you about setting some personal goals. After the family group session Larry received feedback from his mentor availabilities nice the fact that we have a lot of permissions building who really do want to do this who really do believe in it that's no use and we're going to do about the whatever it is resistant 10 percent how are you going to break through it. My gut tells me to focus on those who are interested for us because I think that they will help create the groundswell of movement forward where

that is what makes edits in my mind such a good mentor for me is that he is a liar. He is not someone who says you know what I've been in the system 20 years I've paid my dues I'm the principal I'm in charge. It's my way or the highway. So now you're going to school next year and and you're going to be initiating a lot of things. I mean what have you taken away in terms of the pattern of change in the school. I can't expect my students to learn if I'm not expecting my staff to learn as well if I'm not expecting myself to learn as well. I think that I always see you pushing the arm a little. I always see you pushing us to reflect on our own practices and reflect on what we do why we're doing it and how we can do it even more effectively. In the middle of their fall schedule the aspiring principals with an intensive weekend at the G.E. leadership development center in quoting Bill New York. It's a respite from school life during the two days they role played as different members of a school

community. We have to give equal opportunity. This school explored their learning preferences while working I appreciate matches while working and met Jack Welch CEO of General Electric for 20 years and chairman of the advisory board for the leadership academy imparting your values and what you believe is the most important thing you can do it one organization and then the first to admit that I have never taught in a school room that I know nothing about. All the problems you go through every day. It's a lot easier to Jack Welch with all the holes in your gun when you go to work that is going in the morning the other bureaucracy or the hall of things you seem to have to fight with every day. I understand that the aspiring principals then broke into smaller groups to share

their experiences in the schools with Jack Welch. I think it's been very enriching a lot because I'm getting a great deal of theoretical knowledge and able to begin to apply pieces of that charge along with my partner I was very I was welcomed into the community but the role wasn't as defined and as we move along I get more responsibilities and it's good because it's given me a chance to reflect on what works for me versus what doesn't work for me. How much anger is there in the school system. Real care. I mean I think if you don't have cancer your jobs are just murder and cancer is the most difficult thing to get at. As I've mentioned the last couple of years I go a lot of companies and everybody winks and they scam everybody sort of has phony a phony appraisal

you know people think they're current when they don't tell people the minute and they're being cruel. And but they have this false caring and I'm a good marriage I'm very nice. And then somebody comes along I'm not so much in the schools as them as in corporation but then they get in their mid 50s and so many times one can do in there and they shoot him. And it's so unfair. But they thought they were caring and they moved on and didn't take care of them. I was thought about before really. You have lots of energy. You've got those around. Otherwise doesn't matter if you're willing dervish in their in their own sleep and you've got to have an edge. Which is the bill is a yes or no. I'll be wrong sometimes but you want to be a yes or no. That's called the edge and then you get to execute the liver and I read all those stories in a big key

called passionate care I care about you people care about the kids just care about making your school great. We read about Jack Welch during the summer and it was hard to believe that the person we're reading about in terms of leadership was sitting next to us. We were voicing our concerns with education our ideas of my education and he would give his corporate spend on it and that's great because we get to see and interpret things from a different point of view. Well what can you teach me about. Just 275 a Special Ed I mean is 20 percent of our budget. I believe that a lot of educators to get their fill the whole world of special education is to get kids back into regular education. One of the more important things we can do is to not inclusive special ed scores in school building scores so that principals I napped a lot of that motivated to get rid of children who are putting down their scores.

If we stop looking at specialist schools as part of the overall school in the school I think that's the way it used to be and what happens is those kids get pushed aside. Nobody really cares about them because as long as my other scores are good then I don't have to worry about on a special ed teacher I need to get in there and observe your class and to make sure that you doing the best that you can do all of those dunes just down off your horse when you're closer to home. I mean you come up with this. Yes and even more like I'm working on. It's been teachers and not have you been one of those because you know why I said You gotta pick whatever the incentives are.

I didn't say the schools are you going to get obsessive aligned with what you want to have happen but that's reality. That's where you go. But how do you get you to do what to do what I'm going to do that. What was the word or. Or. Or for a bored kid with any power. You would be but I wouldn't do. Look it was horribly that. I never want to walk around with other people.

All you do is think through as the lead is the bomb but you won't solve the problem by Chile. You will only solve the problem through no driven beat driving behavior and ordered right behavior that a liar with some incentive. You get the incentives the mentor principals also met at the retreat to compare their notes on the program. In particular the challenges of integrating the aspiring principals into their schools. Fact attention because somebody is coming into your delving. They don't have a tradition of the conversation that I have myself first. OK am I going. Why am I ok and help why not something that I don't do my god.

I'm going I want to let God be God and say OK come on I'm ready. I've got my stamp. Well you know my spine you know. So I then did they did they they saw on me except they were able to. I thought it was really important for them to have an instructional initiative that they would take as their own. That I wouldn't meddle with. They've been initiating our family group structure which I do really care about and it has they're doing it with a staff that isn't necessarily embracing this 100 percent and never was you know the hardest leadership piece in running a school is figuring out where your real paths of communication are with the group. Figure out where the real structures of change can be. Figuring out how to how to identify your change agents and really activate them so that they they're with you in the initiative. The weekend drew to a close for the mentors an aspiring principal it was back to school.

Accomplish the American dream that my parents set out to accomplish when they came to this country. I think that I have a desire to share that with other people like myself. It is possible to do what you want to do and to be successful at it no matter what people say. You're an immigrant you don't know English. Yeah you have obstacles everybody has obstacles but you can you work really hard and I know that sounds really nice and you want it whatever you want to do. If you're willing to go out and find your own. Because I don't think

people are anything from our heart. And I think that I want to share that with kids who like myself came from another country and are learning to adjust to this country by spending your first winter in the United States. Just my seven year till my dad is ranked Bronx International is a new school that serves recent immigrants from over 30 different countries. Wars had been a large Failing that was broken into five smaller schools. The focus of the curriculum was language development and literacy skills. The old structure for a large high school wasn't designed to graduate 100 percent of the kids or get 100 percent of them to have those large schools were designed to sort codes and to manage the kids that were going to college and push the ones that work and that structure doesn't work anymore. And so the

way a teacher works the way a principal work half the things I want to welcome all of you. So the school I hope that next year a lot of it will be our students all of our kids coming on to the building pretty much reading at level 1 or level 2 on a scale of 1 to 4 which means that pretty much everyone is below grade level ever honest level and with literacy if we want to support you and make sure that you can keep stronger Spanish or other native languages but also learn English. No one has ever really gotten kids who are now readers as a group to graduate and go to a lot of schools are pushing those kids out because they know they're not going to graduate in four years and it's going to bring down their statistics and they won't meet the targets of NCLB and the state were choosing to take them in and figure out how to educate them. One of the really good things about a school where everyone is learning English is no I laugh at you if you don't know a word lasso you if you can't say it you know it's OK to

try and make mistakes. Alexander is on that same mission principles the ransom he was alleged to be her mentor to cultivate her abilities to lead a similar school. Like most of the aspiring principals who will inherit existing schools Alexander has admitted a proposal to create her own school. It makes me feel like I really have a lot to contribute. I know it's possible to create that type of environment by emulating skill. I think that I can do that. I want a school where kids want to come to school and where kids are excited about learning. The original 90 aspiring principals in the academy 77 remain. We'll continue to follow them until the end of the school year when they make their transition from aspiring principal to principal. When did I decide that being a principal was the right thing for me.

You're going to laugh because I wanted to tell you that I'm not sure yet that being a principal is the right thing for me. But here's what I do believe in that having worked as an educator and loving teaching I love teaching I love being an educator I like seeing that spark of that a ha that realization that a learner has. I see a principal ship as sort of the school is now your classroom and I guess that's what gives me the courage to to to move forward toward being a principal in order to be a priest an effective principal I believe you have to be both the teacher and the learner so I don't think the title of principal takes away the time either. Right now I feel like an aspiring principal and I think that they see I am. In my first day of school or whatever that wherever that school might be that's when I'll really feel that I'm the principal of this building.

I don't know about yet in terms of starting a school almost like getting married and looking for a home for the first. Buying that just that way to me you know just that opportunity. We can do anything we want and we can do it really well and it will be great leadership in the principal's office provided by the Wallace Foundation supporting expanding opportunity additional funding for New York Voices provided by the members of the Rockefeller Brothers.